Bhagat Singh: Martyr of the Revolutionary Current

He had a lawyer, an appeal, and a real chance to avoid the gallows. Bhagat Singh chose the trial itself, and the noose after it, as his last political speech.

Bhagat Singh, photographed by Ramnath Photographers, Delhi, in April 1929, aged 21. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

MCQ Questions

MODHIST0108

Bhagat Singh: Martyr of the Revolutionary Current

From a teenage revolutionary to a deliberate martyrdom, at age 23, used as a final political statement.

1907

Born in Banga, Punjab

Born into a Jat Sikh family already active in revolutionary politics; enters the freedom movement as a student in Lahore.

1928

Avenges Lala Lajpat Rai

Shoots police officer J.P. Saunders in Lahore, mistaking him for the officer behind Lajpat Rai’s fatal lathi charge.

1929

Bombs the Central Legislative Assembly

With B.K. Dutt, throws two low-intensity bombs, then waits to be arrested and puts his ideas on trial.

1931

Executed at Lahore Central Jail

Hanged alongside Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru, aged just 23. The date, 23 March, is now Shaheed Diwas.

The pattern: Every major act was designed to be witnessed and reported, not to succeed tactically. This runs from the Assembly bombing to the 116-day jail hunger strike. The courtroom, not the battlefield, was where he meant to win.

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📑 Contents

1HSRA and the Saunders Assassination
2Hunger Strike, Trial, and Prison Writings
3Test Yourself
4Ideology and Enduring Legacy

HSRA and the Saunders Assassination Need to Know

Bhagat Singh (28 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was born in Banga village, Lyallpur district, Punjab — now in Pakistan. His family was already active in revolutionary and progressive politics.
He co-founded the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928, alongside ModHist0109 — Chandrashekhar Azad.
In December 1928, Singh and Shivaram Rajguru shot and killed police officer J.P. Saunders in Lahore. It was a case of mistaken identity — they had meant to kill Superintendent James Scott. That was revenge: Scott had ordered the lathi charge that fatally injured Lala Lajpat Rai.
On 8 April 1929, Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two low-intensity bombs inside the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi, deliberately avoiding casualties. They then let themselves be arrested, to use the trial as a political platform.
Singh was executed on 23 March 1931, at Lahore Central Jail, alongside Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru. He was 23 years old.
23 March is observed in India today as Shaheed Diwas (Martyrs’ Day).

Hunger Strike, Trial, and Prison Writings Good to Know

While in Lahore Central Jail in 1929, Singh led a hunger strike. It demanded recognition as a political prisoner, and equal treatment on food, clothing, and access to books. It lasted 116 days.
Fellow striker Jatin Das died during the same hunger strike, after 63 days without food. His death sharply increased public sympathy for the prisoners’ cause.
A special tribunal, set up by Viceroy Lord Irwin, tried Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru without them present. It sentenced all three to death, on 7 October 1930. Their appeal to the Privy Council was dismissed.
In prison, Singh wrote the essay “Why I Am an Atheist.” He argued that religion grew out of human weakness, and rejected praying for personal comfort as a “degradation.”
His writings show a strong influence of Marxist and socialist thought, not just anti-colonial nationalism. His final political testament called for “social reconstruction on a new, i.e. Marxist, basis.”

Test Yourself

Ideology and Enduring Legacy Great to Know

Singh rejected Gandhian non-violence as a strategy. He argued it risked simply replacing “one set of exploiters with another,” rather than restructuring society itself. This is one of the sharpest ideological splits within the freedom movement. See ModHist0068 — Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Revolutionary Nationalism for the wider revolutionary current he belonged to.
His execution at 23 turned him into an enduring symbol. He especially appeals to younger generations drawn to a more assertive style of nationalism than the Congress’s official line.
In a 2008 India Today poll, Indians voted him the “Greatest Indian.” He ranked ahead of both Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose. That’s a marker of how far his popular legacy has outgrown his short 23-year life.

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